Belgium, 1914-1918. Civilians suffer and resist. Archives testify to what they lived.
![Original Cheluvelt detruit](https://belgiancivilians14-18.arch.be/sites/all/themes/vow/assets/images/slideshow/image-01.jpg)
Your research.
Find out more about Belgian victims of war in your family or abroad.
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Many civilians, men and women, watch the occupying army, forward mail and the underground press. Sometimes they join the allied Intelligence Services.
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Those returning from the camps are thinner, sick, sometimes disabled. Those who stayed in the country live under occupation and violence. All have to relearn to live.
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Those old enough to work are everywhere under the orders of the occupying army : Germany, the French front lines and occupied Belgium.
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Acts of war and indirect consequences of military operations affect the entire population, regardless of class, place or age.
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The whole Belgian society is dismantled. Families seek new points of reference and must reinvent themselves.
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